Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment/B-Class FAQ

Process: B-Class may be assigned by any editor. By convention, military history articles should be assessed by an editor who has not been involved with the article; this is to avoid bias and to help keep standards high. The reviewing editor should confirm that the article meets all five B-Class criteria.

Frequently asked questions: B-Class assessment & criteria

How to nominate articles?

Q. I want an article to be reviewed for the B-class. How do I do it?

A. List it here.

How suitable am I?

Q. I'm not certain I am capable of assessing B-class articles, particularly for criteria 2 and 5. What degree of familiarity/expertise would you say this new drive requires?

A. If you've been around for a few months, got your wits about you, and have a "feel" for what B-Class is about, you'll be fine. If you have lingering doubts, try assessing some of the articles at Category:Military history articles with incomplete B-Class checklists. They'll give you a good idea of what to expect.

B-Class not appearing on the banner

Q. What's wrong with the banner? I added and filled in the B-class checklist for a Stub but the checklist is not appearing on the Milhist banner on the talk page when I saved.

A. Nothing's wrong with it. The template now only shows the checklist for Start, C- and B-class articles. As this article is a Stub, the checklist isn't displayed. (If you change the class from Stub to Start and "preview", you'll see how it works.)

B1 – is suitably referenced and cited

Q. How much referencing is enough – for example, what about articles using only the 1911 Britannica or the Dictionary of Fighting Ships? A lot of pages only use information from these sources, which, although is accurate, may not be ideal IMO. What is the policy in this regards?

A. Policy is to cite anything that is likely to be challenged but, again, this is B-Class not a FAC so some latitude is permitted. As a rule of thumb, the absolute minimum is that all paragraphs should at least end with a citation and all direct quotes should be attributed to a source.

B2 – reasonably covers the topic

Q. How comprehensive does the article need to be?

A. You are checking that there are no obvious gaps and that the article will reasonably answer any questions a general reader (not a specialist) might have. For example, a B-class article on an air force base would typically say where the base is, when it was in use, and which notable squadrons used it. Similarly, an article about a battle should say where and when, identify the participating units/armies, and mention the outcome.

B3 – has a defined structure, including a lead section

Q. Organization – What is the minimum to pass the article for organization? If we go by the template comment, as long as it has sections, its ok, irrespective of whether those actually work or if they are not ok.

A. Broadly, yes, though if they're ridiculously irrelevant, or very skimpy, consider re-organising the sections yourself on the sofixit principle. B-Class is not a very high bar.

Q. How long should the lead section be?

A. Providing it accurately summarizes the main body of the article, the length doesn't matter too much. That said, most reviewers at B-class expect to see at least one reasonably long paragraph with multiple sentences. At higher ratings, though, a couple of paragraphs will generally be required depending on the length.

B4 – is free from major grammatical errors

Q. What counts against grammar?

A. Minor grammatical or spelling errors and so forth are acceptable for B-class, although it is suggested that while assessing an article for grammar these should be fixed at the same time. Nevertheless, if it makes sense and is reasonably well written, pass it. Fail it only if the article is poorly written. For example, this would be acceptable for B-class: "The ship was sunk in 1918 by a torpedo from a German u-boat. Although 20 of her crew were killed, the remainder, including the captain, took to lifeboats and were picked up by HMS Example, which was in the vicinity." But, this would not: "The ship sunk in 1918, by torpedo from a germa uboat. 20 crew went down in it but most with CAPT excvaped in lifeboats and were picked up by example."

Q. Do I pass a two-line stub for grammar if there are no mistakes or do I not as there is not much to judge?

A. Don't bother completing the checklist for something that short, simply assess it as a stub and the checklist will not show.

B5 – contains appropriate supporting graphics, infoboxes, or images

Q. If the page has good images, but lacks a much needed infobox, do we pass it or not?

A. Pass it. Please note that infoboxes are not compulsory. The fail really only applies if the article has no graphic (infobox, photos, graphics) at all. What we don't want is pages that are a wall of text, with nothing to break it up or add visual interest.

Q. Does a longer article require more supporting materials than a shorter one in order to pass Criterion 5? E.g. is one infobox at the top sufficient for a 12-screen-long article, or does it need something to break up the rest of the text as well?

A. Just an infobox is generally not sufficient for a longer article. The rest of the text should be broken up a bit as well, although if there are no images likely to be available, some common sense should be applied here. In this regard, a quote box, or something similar might help.